This artifact is on loan from the National Reconnaissance Office (Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance).
HEXAGON KH-9
Reconnaissance Satellite
HEXAGON KH-9 reconnaissance satellites were the largest and last U.S. intelligence satellites to return photographic film to earth. During the Cold War, 19 HEXAGON missions imaged 877 million square miles of the Earth’s surface between 1971-1986. Objects smaller than two feet across could be imaged from around 80-100 miles altitude.